How to Initiate a Program Automatically Upon System Startup?
Scenario
I recently wanted my Python program to execute right after the system boots up. I discovered several options to achieve this, eliminating the need for manual intervention to run the program.
Option 1: Editing through Crontab
- Open a terminal with elevated privileges:
sudo su - - Edit the crontab configuration:
crontab -e - Add the following command to start the Python program (assuming you want to run it on a Raspberry Pi terminal): ```bash
@reboot /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/your/script.py
Option 2: Editing through services using systemd
- Create a script, name it as “myscript.sh”
- Make the script executable:
chmod +x myscript.sh - Navigate to the systemd directory:
cd /etc/systemd/system/ - Create a service file named “myscript.service” inside the systemd directory.
- And below lines using
nano myscript.sh
Description=My Script
[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/myscript.sh
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/
StandardOutput=inherit
StandardError=inherit
Restart=always
User=<replace_username>
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
- Reload systemd:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload - Enable the service:
sudo systemctl enable myscript.service - Start the service:
sudo systemctl start myscript.service - To check the service status:
sudo systemctl status myscript.service
Option 3: Autostart using lxsession
- Edit the autostart configuration file:
nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart - Add the following line to automatically start the Python script:
@lxterminal -e python3 /path/to/your/script.py - Save the file and initiate a system reboot:
sudo reboot